If we can't police our ports, should we turn to the Canadian Navy?

Let's go to Action Stations on Canada's Car Theft Mayhem

Feedback inspires reflection, of this there is no doubt. Whether you’re a parent, spouse, employee, CEO or Toronto Star columnist.

As someone who prefers problem-solving over shouting at the sky, I didn’t want to leave yesterday’s topic (see prior post “There's an easy solution to the car-theft crisis. Too bad the Trudeau government isn't paying attention” March 20-24) without adding an incremental potential solution for your consideration.

For more than 100 years, the Royal Canadian Navy has shown that Canada has an important role to play on the oceans of our planet. The Navy’s role has evolved since the Battle of the Atlantic during the Second World War, when Canada had 373 fighting ships and more than 90,000 men serving in the RCN. The daily challenges of a Master Sailor’s life are different than in WWII, as is both the equipment and threat environment, but consecutive governments continue to task our modern day sailors with crucial missions on behalf of Canadians.

There’s one particular mission that might be relevant to every car owner as various levels of government try — hopefully — to eventually stem the $1 billion “industry” represented by car thefts.

For more than a decade, your Navy has been deployed globally on various counter-narcotic and counter-terrorism missions. Our sailors have achieved record breaking heroin and hashish busts off the Horn of Africa, where the proceeds invariably go to narco-terrorist organizations.  In one trip alone, the RCN recovered more than 8.5 tonnes of heroin. The cash proceeds of that heroin didn’t go towards financing terrorism against the West.

Closer to home, our Navy’s ships are regularly deployed with the U.S. Coast Guard and DEA/FBI off Central and South America.  On any given day, the Canadian Armed Forces might be involved in detecting a suspect vessel that leads to a seizure of 4,300 kilos of cocaine. 

And whether we like it or not, there are people out there in the world who would very much like to get that cocaine into places like Etobicoke Collegiate, St. Mike’s and UofT.

While these counter-narcotic missions are all conducted on the high seas, your Navy also has decades of experience in the St. Lawrence Seaway. Which gets me thinking about how to bring this particular skillset to bear on the export route that’s preferred by the criminal gangs sending thousands of your cars to Africa and Eastern Europe annually.

Stay with me.

Transport Canada regulations put a serious burden on the shoulders of every commercial ship Captain who enters Canadian waters. We’ve got environmental legislation about ballast water, requirements for regular surveys, workplace safety and so forth. As you’d expect, commercial ships can’t carry a dirty bomb, narcotics, stowaways, nor the bounty of criminal activity.

Imagine if we took the safety of our strategic waterways as seriously as the United States: the next time a series of electronic TAG trackers identify a particular Commercial Freighter with a handful of stolen cars on its deck, let’s stop that ship before it leaves the Seaway. The Federal Public Safety Minister has the legal authority to formally request that the CAF send the RCN’s Naval Tactical Operations Group to board the freighter in search of criminal contraband. While the NTOG team is trained for armed boarding in the Caribbean, for example, they’re also adept at operating at the lower threat “Constabulary” level.

The RCMP Counter-terrorism group was disbanded years ago, leaving the CAF Special Operations Force as the only highly-functioning tool Canada has for the most difficult of pointy end-type missions. That team is already overtasked globally, but the skills and discipline that the RCN’s NTOG sailors use when boarding suspected drug ships on Op CARIBBE are perfectly suited for a Commercial freighter here at home. These dedicated young Canadians are trained to approach from either sea or air, and if the news media coverage of a few successful gang busts has a positive impact on military recruiting, all the better.

Once the team has secured the ship, the Sûreté du Québec / RCMP can make the arrest and turn the ship back to the Port of Montreal for further inspection.

There’s no doubt that the Captain will profess to not knowing what was in the containers sitting on his ship’s deck, but the rules about export permits and CBSA paperwork can’t be ignored. He/She may have a great criminal defence, and that’ll play out in the appropriate forum; clear cut Transport Canada regs are harder for a Captain to wriggle away from, however. Once the ship’s owner has posted, say, a $1 million secured bond to ensure that their Captain returns for the eventual Court date, we can let the Freighter go on its merry way. Perhaps after a four or seven-day delay. It’ll take that long to search the rest of the containers and offload all of the stolen cars that are uncovered…all at the expense of the ship’s owner, of course.

The delay in getting the ship’s remaining goods to market will serve as a reminder for the next time they come to Canada to pick up a load of suspect containers.

The RCN already has the Rib boats and RCAF helicopters needed to do the job safely and effectively, and they can do all of this without re-tasking a warship from our depleted fleet (see prior post “RCN ‘facing some very serious challenges,’ says Commander” Dec. 5-23).

CAF members were active on domestic forest fire duty for 131 of the 365 days in 2023, for example. Communities across Canada rely on our RCAF and Navy for search and rescue operations. And don’t forget flood assistance, evacuations and G7 Summits among other recent domestic CAF assignments.

While an interdiction operation might sound like an aggressive approach to combating our billion dollar car theft problem, I’d point you to the so-called 1995 Turbot War between Canada and Spain:

The Turbot War of 1995 was an international fishing dispute between Canada, (supported by the United Kingdom and Ireland) and Spain (supported by the European Union and Iceland) in which Canada stopped a Galician (Spanish) fishing trawler in international waters and arrested its crew.

Canada claimed that European Union factory ships were illegally overfishing Greenland halibut, also known as Greenland turbot, on the Grand Banks, just outside Canada's declared 200 nautical mile (370 km) Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

Prime Minister Chretien wasn’t afraid to see DFO ships, with support from the RCMP, Coast Guard and RCN, fire .50 cal machine gun rounds across the bow of a foreign fishing trawler.

The [Spanish] Estai was escorted to St. John's, arriving with great fanfare across the province and region — and the country. Canada's federal court processed the case and the charges against the crew while Spain and the European Union protested vehemently, threatening boycotts against Canada and wishing to have the case heard at the International Court of Justice.

Sun Tzu might be a fan of “winning without fighting.” In the battle against car thefts, it strikes me that Canada is currently losing without fighting. In my Star column yesterday, I advocated for tighter control over the eastern Federal Port network:

As the former chairman of Toronto’s Port Authority, the solution is not complicated: Choke off export routes and criminals can no longer get paid. 

A two-pronged approach is always superior when tackling a difficult target, and that’s where the Navy’s skilled NTOG team could play a constructive role and send a message to the global shipping network. Let’s not miss the moment.

MRM

(this post, like all blogs, is a personal Opinion Piece and has not been reviewed or approved by any other party)

(photo: Sailor, New York, 1951, by Irving Penn)